Ford On Food

Somebody once told me, “Jason…the closest you’ll ever get to culture, is yoghurt”. Pretty harsh comment really, but I think I deserved it at the time. It comes as a surprise to some people that less than one percent of all bacteria on earth are dangerous to humans. The ones that cause food poisoning are called pathogens; a lot of the other bacteria are quite useful in food production. Imagine a world without beer, wine, cheese, vegemite, penicillin or yoghurt. You’d rather live on the moon – it’s made of cheese you know (excuse the pun). Fermenting and coagulating various types of milk, makes yoghurt. As the milk turns, the natural sugars (lactose) are converted into lactic acid, which in turn produces bacterial change. Large producers of yoghurt add active bacteria such as ‘lactobacillus bulgericus’ or ‘streptococcus thermophilus’. Yoghurt has been produced for many centuries in the Middle East and India, most probably a natural occurrence, before refrigeration was invented. Most Western and European culture